Thursday Threads

I feel refreshed after my day away from the keyboard, so let's have at it....

Orange is the New Orange - The Oklahoma State Cowboys were easily the best team in college golf this year, but match-play has been known to produce quirky champions.  No chance of that this time:

Oklahoma State, the top-ranked and top-seeded host, steamrolled Alabama in Wednesday’s NCAA Championship final, posting a 5-0 victory over the Crimson Tide to

capture the blue blood’s first national title since 2006 and 11th overall. Oklahoma State did it at Karsten Creek, seven years after the No. 1 Cowboys fell in a stunning semifinal upset to Augusta State at a home NCAAs. 

This win also avenges Oklahoma State’s 2014 defeat in the final to Alabama, and the Cowboys become the first No. 1 seed to win NCAAs since the tournament changed to a match-play format in 2009. 

“This day was all about (the players) and all the people that came before them,” Bratton said. “They’ll never forget how they stepped up on that stage.”

5-0?  Honestly, it didn't feel that close....  I thought the ref shoulda stopped it before they made the turn.

Playing the role of Stephen Ames...

Bauchou made the biggest statement. 

The junior had struggled with his ball-striking this week, but a strong performance tee to green Tuesday imbued him with confidence. Bauchou knocked down flagsticks, birdied five of his first eight holes to race to a 6-up lead on Jonathan Hardee and then holed a greenside bunker shot for eagle at the par-5 ninth. He had gone out in 7-under 29 and was 7 up. 

A win at the 10th put him 8 up, and he closed out an 8-and 7 victory after draining a 10-footer for par at the par-3 11th. 

“I was the last out but the first in, which was pretty cool,” Bauchou said.

Bachou shot a tasty little 29 on the front nine, and it was an epic beatdown.

Unfortunately, while I've become a big fan of this event (including last week's women's version thereof), this year's installment seemed flat.  Part of that was obviously the absence of close matches and sudden changes in fortunes, though I'm not sure that's an exhaustive explanation.

That said, if you haven't seen OSU's Matthew Wolff's unique swing, take a peek:

Don't they teach about landscape mode in college any more?

Memorial Day - Dave Shedloski covers the annual State of the Jack presser, and the great one is happy with where he's landed:

The PGA Championship shifts to mid-May starting next year, causing a jumble to the

PGA Tour schedule in the fifth month that includes the Players Championship, the tour's flagship event, returning to a March date. The Memorial Tournament, however, will remain in its contractually guaranteed slot two weeks before the U.S. Open. 

That leaves the Memorial, hosted by golf great Jack Nicklaus at his Muirfield Village Golf Club, sandwiched between the two major championships with a week's buffer on either side. While it doesn't appear to be the most favorable spot, Nicklaus, winner of a record 18 majors, figures that he'll still draw a field as strong as this year's has garnered. 

The 43rd edition of the Memorial, which begins Thursday, features eight of the top 10 in the world rankings and the top seven in the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup standings -- plus five-time Memorial winner Tiger Woods.

This is not an event about which we had any concerns, except of course as relates to weather....  And Jack offers his won concerns on that subject:

"I don't know," Nicklaus added, "what's going to happen in May in Oak Hill in Rochester, but I wish them well. I hope the weather is good. That's going to be a tough time."

Save it, Jack, they're not listening.  Dylan Dethier has this on Tiger's return to the event:

Moving on: Tiger's last Memorial start was miserable. Don't expect a repeat performance

 Seems like he's setting the bar awfully low.  But this was news to me, as I thought it was all Omaha:

But the biggest reveal of Manning's day was when he shared the story behind his old golf-related snap counts. 

"All those years in Indy we had a snap count, we had different words for the snap count, to snap it on one or on two," Manning explained. "And for several years (due to their world ranking) 'Tiger' was on one and 'Phil' was on two. Tiger always liked that, he could hear it. He'd say, 'Heard Tiger, is Tiger still on one?'"

Poor Phil.  Always Number Two.

My Kingdom For a Paddle -  They are really up the (Shoal) creek this week:

It takes a little luck to win a major, and in the case of Shoal Creek, a little luck to get one

started on time. Wednesday night’s forecast called for rain, but if the USGA can somehow dodge another bullet from Mother Nature, the 73rd U.S. Women’s Open might actually start on time. 

How long the rounds take playing the ball down is another story, but if a tee shot is struck at 6:40 a.m. Thursday, it will be a small victory. 

After Tuesday’s practice rounds were washed out due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto, Wednesday’s were delayed until 1 p.m. due to electricity. Since 10 p.m. Tuesday evening, the course received 1.62 inches of water, pushing the overall total since Sunday afternoon to 4.76 inches. 

“I’ll just say it,” said USGA senior managing director John Bodenhamer, “we were a little unlucky last night. I think we had hoped for a better night, and we got worse.”

I've been reliably informed that hope is not a strategy. 

In addition to whether the USGA can play the ball down, the other factor worthy of note is that many of the players have yet to see the golf course:

After playing nine holes, Danielle Kang came into the press room. If everything starts on schedule on Thursday morning, she'll have yet to see the front nine before teeing it up in the most prestigious event in women's golf. She's one of several players in that position, which, to state the wildly obvious, it's not ideal. But Kang's confident, cavalier personality takes the situation in stride. 

"Trey Mullinax walked me through the whole golf course from 1 to 18 on the phone," said Kang, referring to the PGA Tour pro and former University of Alabama golfer. "I feel like I've played it, you know? I have the yardage book. My caddie is stressed out. He hasn't walked it. I'm really OK."

He seems more likely to canoe it than walk it, but whatcha gonna do?  Everyone talks about the whether, but no one does anything about it.  It's a mess, and it being Alabama, we can therefore assume it to be a hot mess....

Rut Roh - Ever wonder how Ryder Cup venues are chosen?  Of course not, as they quite obviously go to the highest bidder.... FIFA's got nothing on our boys.

It is unlikely the Ryder Cup features prominently in the minds of Italian politicians as they seek a solution to the latest bout of instability. Those presiding over the Ryder Cup,

however, simply cannot ignore what is a crisis in Rome, even by Italian governmental standards. 

The political chaos threatening imminent ecomonic turmoil coincides neatly with the most significant date in Italy’s golf calendar – the Italian Open is this week – while the sport has been high up the news agenda after Francesco Molinari, the nation’s pre-eminent player, saw off Rory McIlroy to win PGA Championship on Sunday. 

Indeed, Italy’s financial commitment to its national Open, to the tune of a $7m prize fund to guarantee inclusion in the blue-chip Rolex Series, was crucial to it being awarded the 2022 Ryder Cup three years ago. Bids from Germany and Spain were rejected, with Italy committing to an overhaul of the Marco Simone course, just north of Rome, so that it would be Ryder Cup-ready. Eyebrows were raised from the outset.

So, while certain folks are going to pains to inform us that all obligations thus far have been met, this week's event is part of the lucrative Rolex Series:

Still, recent weeks have not provided much to alter the sentiment of those sceptical about Italy and the Ryder Cup. The host course of the 2018 Italian Open, Gardagolf in Brescia, was late in being confirmed to participants. Players were subsequently warned by the European Tour to expect a course short of the standard they would expect for such a high-profile and lucrative competition. Given the emphasis placed on Rolex Series performances in respect of Ryder Cup points, this is an ominous scenario. It would be a surprise if players don’t speak out over the coming days regarding what is little more than a standard members’ course.

A standard members' course?  But wait, that's not even the bad part:

Of greater significance is a lack of action at Marco Simone. The European Tour’s plan to host the Italian Open there from 2019 made perfect sense; Le Golf National has hosted

the French Open every year since 2002 and it takes charge of the Ryder Cup this year. However, the Italian proposal has been undermined by the absence of renovation work at this midway point between Ryder Cup award and playing. It is now understood there will be no Italian Open there until 2021 at the earliest.

“A considerable amount of work has already been undertaken at Marco Simone in terms of planning, including the transport plan and the parking plan,” the spokesperson said. “In terms of the work on the golf course, the process has taken longer than ourselves, the Italian Golf Federation and Marco Simone envisaged and this is due, in part, to changes to the political landscape in Italy since the country was chosen as host. However, we are now in the final stages of concluding detailed planning approvals with the companies who will conduct the work on the golf course.”

Hey, they've got a parking plan, and I'm sure the political issues in Italy will provide smooth sailing between now and 2022.....  What could possibly go wrong?

It just so happens that Shack has a suggestion:

Given that Tiger Woods seems a very likely candidate to captain the 2022 team, and his Italian isn't quite as good as Kobe Bryant's, maybe the matches should just move to the Old Course? You know, out of respect to a legend...and the sport.

Forget the Tiger bit, I'm not sure why he would sign on for a road game, but that's about the only way I see The Old Course getting a Ryder, which would be the ultimate happy ending.

Alan, Asked - Shipnuck's weekly mailbag feature has become appointment-blogging:

Am I wrong to be more impressed by Koepka this week than Rose? 2nd at Colonial after the big injury layoff bodes well for the last 3 majors of the year. #AskAlan -@AmolYajnik 

Yes, you're wrong – that was a rock star performance by Justin Rose. Of course, he has been methodically compiling his Hall of Fame credentials over the last decade plus, and I think he’s now there. But I agree that Koepka’s performance was quite impressive; dating to Sunday at the Players, he has fired three 63s in his last five rounds. Not only does Koepka's fine play add some juice to the upcoming majors, but it's a major boost for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Koepka was a stud last time around and the Americans can once again count on him to be a rock.

OK, let me first just note that I was awfully impressed by Brooksie at Colonial, not least because you're not supposed to be able to bomb-and-gauge that golf course.  And yet, bomb-and-gouge he did, and quite successfully.  Though the issue with Brooks is the wrist.... 

 And while that is unquestionably good news for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, in what sense is a guy that's never been to one a "rock"?  Aren't DJ, Jordan, Patrick, JT, Phil and Kooch the rocks?  Brooksie is a promising rookie....

I'll bounce around in Alan's item for related themes, such as this:

Why are the Euros so insecure about the BMW field? #AskAlan -@PurdueMatt05 

Umm, because arguably Europe's two best players (Rose and Rahm) were plying their trade in Texas? Or maybe because, despite the glut of World Ranking points, only six Americans bothered to make the trip? (Harold Varner III, take a bow.) There is also the general insecurity Euros have felt ever since the 1920s, when Americans began dominating the game they invented. This chip-on-the-shoulder can be a beautiful thing: it birthed Seve and that greatest generation and reinvented the Ryder Cup. But like a clingy ex, the whole shtick can indeed get a little old.

A cling ex?  I see we're doing a little trolling ourselves, not that there's anything wrong with that.

So this week two Euros won the two biggest events - what is the over/ under on Ryder Cup prediction trolling tweets when this happens? -Paul (@LiveTweetGolf)

It's been surprisingly tame on my Twitter feed compared to earlier in the season, when the Euro fanboys would crawl out from under their bridges with every top-5 by one of their brethren. I think they've been dispirited by the simple fact that U.S. players presently hold all four major championships and the Players trophy. But I have no doubt they’ll rear their ugly heads soon enough.

They won't be dispirited in September, though this Martin Dempster item did strike me a sa tad defensive.... 

But note his allusion to Rose on Rahmbo as Europe's two bets players.... Isn't he overlooking somebody?

#AskAlan Who is Rory's closest historical contemporary and why is it Greg Norman? -@SNESdrunk 

Nah, it’s Phil. Norman was amazingly consistent; to wit, his 331 weeks at number one. Rory is much streakier, a la Mickelson, and his game has the same variety, which is why each of them has won three legs of the Grand Slam while Norman could only get it done at the Open Championship. And there's a massive difference between winning a total of two majors (like Norman) and four (like McIlroy). One more to go to tie the five won by Phil…his closest historical comparison.

Obviously not a perfect comparison, but he's right that Norman is less comparable.  But in all the Ryder Cup talk, isn't Rory the real issue for the Euros?  Without him in Beast Mode, it's hard to see the Euro winning.... And last I heard, Patrick Reed is still living rent-free in Rory's head. 

Of course, the Yanks have some issues as well:

Let's hear your thoughts on Jordan Spieth. Is this a mean reversion? -@BrianScottf

A great question, well-phrased:

Spieth is great TV because between the ropes he's such an extrovert. Not everyone loves to hear him barking at his ball or constantly opining to Greller, but it is undeniably more interesting than watching an emotionless automaton like, oh, half the Tour. Also, he’s a Texas boy competing in Texas, gearing up for a summer during which he'll try to complete the Grand Slam. There is also something heroic in his struggle. No one fights harder for every stroke, and watching Spieth labor to piece together his game is fascinating. After his fine work navigating claustrophobic Colonial he's now second on Tour in strokes gained tee-to-green…and a woeful 192nd in strokes gained putting. A lot of attention has been given to his short misses but statistically he's about the same as last year. Truth be told, he's never been great on short putts — even during his epic 2015 season he was a ho-hum 52nd on putts inside 10'. This year he's regressed to 154th, after ranking 102nd in 2017. The bigger fall-off has been from mid-range, where Speith was historically great. In 2015 he ranked second from 15’-20’ and first 20’-25’. (Last year he was 65th and 4th, respectively.) These are the bonus putts you don’t statistically expect to make and Spieth used to pour them in like practice round gimmes, one of the keys to his low scores. This year he’s 200th from 15'-20' and 187th from 20’-25’. He’s also wrecking rounds with three-putts, having three-jacked 30 times this year when it happened only 28 time all of last season (and 38 times in '15).

All-time great putters like Ben Crenshaw and Brad Faxon and Tiger Woods had that gift early in their golfing lives and it never left. The interesting thing about Spieth is the he describes himself as a poor putter throughout amateur golf and says it wasn’t until college and the outset of his pro career that he turned the flatstick into a weapon through mechanical changes, hard work and, most of all, belief. He's still working hard but clearly struggling with his mechanics. Belief is even more mercurial. As electric as Spieth's final round was at the Masters, what lingers is him missing a do-or-die 8’ putt on the 72nd hole with the green jacket potentially hanging in the balance. (The blown 12-footer for eagle on 13 also stung.) I still believe this is a slump that will pass, and as good as Spieth's ball-striking is, once the putter heats up he will be very, very dangerous. But as the frustration and scar tissue builds up, it’s impossible not to wonder if a bad putter who willed himself into being great can revert to permanent mediocrity. Time will tell with Spieth. At least we know the cameras will always be watching.

That's a lot of data, some interesting for sure, but it doesn't seem supportive of Alan's conclusion.  I get what he means about Spiteh's grinding.... Curtis Strange used to say that if you're not beggin', you're not really tryin'.  Though heroic seems a stretch....

Spieth has become a much more consistent ball-striker than I expected, which is a fortunate thing...  But if that putter doesn't start behaving....

We've had a great two weeks for golf architecture. Trinity was a great new track and this week with a classic track. If you were (1) updating an existing course or (2) building a new one, what’s the most important feature to make a course equal to current technology? #AskAlan -@gwdowell

I could play either Trinity or Colonial every day for the rest of my life and be quite content, but it's worth noting that the pros torched both courses without breaking a sweat. Each one needs another 2,000 or so yards to test Tour players. Or they need to be baked-out to the point of almost being unplayable, which is risky business and not good for the members and paying customers who tee it up there as soon as the tournament leaves town. Modern technology and training methods have simply overwhelmed the game's playing fields.

There's a reason Annika played Colonial....  That place has been overwhelmed for decades.

I think we need more data for Trinity, as it was new turf and not much wind.  But without wind these guys are going to torch that place as well.

He goes out with some more trolling:

#AskAlan Who does Tiger play with in Paris, and how many times does he play? -@jeremybenson 

The more interesting question is, Will Tiger and Phil be paired together? I think it's a resounding yes. The Augusta practice round wasn't an accident; these guys are both way too calculating for that. They're getting a feel for each other's games and equipment and building more rapport and trust. Tiger and Phil paired together in fourballs? The earth will stop spinning on its axis, and I can't wait.

If they keep Phil out of foursomes, I suppose I can live with this fourball pairing.  Just be prepared for what happens if they get beaten, which I think is more than likely. 

Tuesday Topics

It's back to work after the long holiday weekend, so here you find me at my keyboard....

Karsten Kreek, The Lads - An afternoon mixed event at the club denied me the opportunity to watch the conclusion of stroke play for the men.  Unfortunate, but the silver lining is that I also wasn't able to watch Justin Verlander cause Aaron Judge to do that uncanny impression of Mario Mendoza.

In his last start of as a college golfer, Augusta’s Broc Everett finally got his wish. No, it wasn’t to claim the NCAA individual championship. It was simply to win a collegiate event. 

Of course, that it was the biggest title in men’s college golf makes the accomplishment all the more sweet. When the redshirt senior from West Des Moines, Iowa, rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat Auburn freshman Brandon Mancheno, it wasn’t just for posterity. It was for history. In the process, he became the first Jaguar to win an individual NCAA Championship and the first golfer to make the NCAA title his first and only college victory since Florida’s Nick Gilliam in 2001. 

Everett, a walk-on at Augusta who shot a closing 71, his fourth straight sub-par score, to get to seven-under 281, had five top-five finishes during the 2017-’18 season prior to playing nationals, including his last three starts. The lefty was runner-up at MEAC conference championship (the third time he’d finished second in the event) and the NCAA Raleigh Regional. He also lost a playoff last October to teammate Alex Shead at the SSU Tiger Fall Invitational. And for his career, he had posted 17 top-10s.

That's so golf!  Shack had some helpful advice for all:

If you were wondering why play seemed slight faster than last week's women's championship--key word seemed--turns out they handed out some slow play penalties in this year's event. Though players in some cases were never warned and as Lance Ringler writes for Golfweek, the NCAA Championship time par system differs from regular season policies. 

One thought for the next coaches meeting: using a coach as a rangefinder target for a par-5 layup shot on national TV isn't the best look. Especially on a playoff hole taking 30 minutes to play.

The qualification for match play seemed to mostly follow form, though these drama queens had a bit of a close call:

Doug Ghim and Scottie Scheffler have had illustrious careers at the University of Texas.

Ghim and Scheffler each made closing birdies Monday on Karsten Creek’s ninth hole that proved to be the difference for the Longhorns, who avoided a playoff for the final match-play berth by two shots. Texas will be the seventh seed for match play, which begins Tuesday, and will face second-seeded Duke in the quarterfinals. 

On a day when as many as nine teams found themselves within a shot of the cut line, Texas climbed four spots on the leaderboard. With Scheffler and Ghim through 17 holes, the Longhorns were tied with Vanderbilt and Alabama for sixth. The Commodores were in the house and the Tide were grouped with Texas.

And now it's just a crapshoot, with form meaning exactly nothing.

Mudders Needed -  The ladies are playing their U.S. Open this week and, while I hate to throw a wet blanket on it....

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The USGA has never implemented lift, clean and place in a U.S. Women’s Open, but a couple of its champions believe Subtropical Storm Alberto may force the governing body to do so at Shoal Creek this week. 

“They are going to have to play it up,” said Cristie Kerr, winner of the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open. “It’s already soaked out there. There are puddles everywhere. Around the greens, it’s super muddy.” 

Kerr played 18 holes in a practice round Monday in mist and light rain. The course was soggy, with close to 3 inches of rain having fallen over the last week. There is more rain forecast for late Monday and early Tuesday, with Alberto’s passing. The USGA’s meteorologist said anywhere from 1 to 3 inches could fall during the storm. 

“Frankly, I don’t think this golf course can take much more water,” Kerr said.

Lift, clean and cheat for a national championship.  Next thing you'll tell me is that they've backed off on Monday 18-hole playoffs.... Yeah, Mike, no problem, take all the mulligans you need.

They're battling more than just a recent onslaught of rain.  Tough spring conditions have created turf issues, then add water and mix.  Tough week for the gals.

Rory, The Post-Mortems - Rory gets the John Feinstein treatment under this header:

For Rory McIlroy, 2018 is turning into a year of what might have been

John, has it occurred to you that we might posit the same query about his entire career?  I know, in this modern age four majors is virtually GOAT-worthy, but it feels like he's determined to underachieve.

Rory McIlroy has had a remarkable four months—almost. On Sunday, for the fifth time

this year, he had a chance to win a golf tournament. After losing to Francesco Molinari by two strokes at European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, he’s now 1-for-5. On one hand, he’s had five top-fives—a win, two seconds, a T-3 and a T-5—already this year. On the other hand, he could be running away with all the player-of-the-year awards if he’d been a better Sunday closer than he’s been. 

It isn’t as if McIlroy doesn’t know how to get to the finish line. He just turned 29 earlier this month and has already won four major championships, two WGC events, a FedEx Cup title and 24 tournaments worldwide. He’s been a lock future Hall-of-Famer for a while now.

John is putting in a lot of effort to grade Rory on a curve, as we're mostly speaking of second-tier events and third-tier opponents.   Feinstein makes the point that three majors and the Ryder Cup remain in front of us, which is true... or maybe true enough.  But while Bellerive could set up well for Rors, I just can't see him in the mix at Shinny or Carnoustie....  He's still not a big fan of the wind.

Tiger Scat - Or, what a difference a year makes:

OK, we get it.... 

He spent his Memorial Day doing his homework:

The Tour Confidentialistas tried to tie this week to the Open:

3. Next up on Tour: Jack's Memorial Tournament and Woods's (likely) last start before the U.S. Open. Woods is no stranger to Muirfield Village — he's never missed a cut in 15 appearances with eight top 10s and five wins. How much will this week tell us about the likelihood that he'll contend at Shinnecock June 14-17?

What, you think he might go to Memphis? 

Zak: Like at Bay Hill, I expect Tiger to play well at Muirfield. If we've learned anything this year, 2015 was an aberration. Don't even think about that 85. He's so much better, different, etc., than he was then. We can see it in the grinding to make cuts, and then tossing up low numbers on the weekend. In other words, I don't expect a made cut or missed cut at Muirfield to tell us much about Shinnecock, a wholly different course that will be in a wholly different shape when he plays it. 

Bamberger: Muirfield is a hard course where a lot can go wrong. Tiger has not shown he can play 72 holes. I imagine he'll play well and have some serious hiccups on his way to Sunday afternoon. I wouldn't venture any comment on Shinnecock Hills without seeing the course and how it is set up.

So Mike, you think one needs actual knowledge to opine on things?  Interesting, though it kinda undermines the logic for this here blog....

Wood: I think he will contend at both. 

Shipnuck: Memorial demands a lot of drivers and punishes wayward tee shots, which is not good news for Tiger. Shinnecock will demand a lot of drivers and will severely punish wayward tee shots, which is really bad news for Tiger.

I'm surprised that Alan thinks Shinny will have the guys hitting lots of drivers, which is not my expectation.

That said, Shack is already posting hole flyovers, which we'll get to in good time.  Best part is that he's gone back to his programs from the prior Shinny Opens and is posting the comments from P.J. Boatwright in 1986 and David Eger in 1995.  

Also amusing is this add he scanned from the 1995 program:

IZOD!  Rocco!  Lots of....errr yeah, champions, that's the ticket, in that ad.  

Good stuff as is this on the famed Stanford White clubhouse, today's installment of Who Moved the Flagpole?

No date is given for the older photo.

Nothing To See Here - Shack provides this interesting data set, though without an explanation as to its source:

Year  Tour Average At Colonial Time

2018        294.8
2017        289.2
2016        288.1
2008        283.2
1998        269.0

Assuming, which seems reasonable, that the data for 2016-18 is consistent, that's seven yards over two years, which has to be significant.  Here's Geoff's take:

We all can see where players are hitting the ball and why--bicep curls!--so it's always fun to see where today's linebackers rank with the engineers of the past. If nothing else, the stunning increase this year theoretically means the governing bodies will have to act based on past commitments. Theoretically. 

Note the PGA Tour driving distance average through the Colonial this year versus past years if you are looking for perspective on the influence of pilates, core work and lean protein diets.

So we're up five yards from where we were last year at this time, a year the USGA and R&A said showed the first spike in some time. Maybe all of the mowers on the PGA Tour have been sharpened? Lowered? Infused with special oils to make the ball run more?

Oh, and traditionally the average goes up as the weather gets warmer.

That last bit would apply to all years, and shouldn't increase the differential.  

My concern with these numbers is that it seems that we're seeing more fairway woods and driving irons off the tee, so that the increases are understated by failing to account for the club mix.

But while we had a building drum roll of anticipation of action, that seems to have passed with the announced opposition of  various organizations with PGA in their names.  

Tomorrow is a golf day, so I'll likely save everything for Thursday.

Weekend Wrap

Probably an abbreviated version thereof, as it's still sorta the weekend...

A Rose By Any Other Name - It wasn't even close:

Justin Rose closed with a 6-under 64 and finished at 20 under Sunday at Colonial for a three-stroke victory over defending U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka in the Fort

Worth Invitational. 

It was the ninth career PGA Tour victory for Rose, the 37-year-old Englishman and No. 5 player in the world who also won his 2017-18 season debut in October at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. He is the fifth player with multiple wins this season. Rose got nearly $1.3 million and a plaid jacket for winning at Hogan’s Alley. 

"Really, really proud of this one," Rose said. "This is a special victory for me. I think obviously just winning here at this venue I think is really what means so much. A tournament that I pick up the trophy and the first thing I saw was Ben Hogan's name twice. It sort of says a lot."

Rose and Brooks Koepka put on an entertaining show for the folks, but Brooksie was never at risk of catching him.  As the CBS crew keeps telling us, he's about 14th in putting on tour this year, and if he puts that well he should actually be winning more.

I'd suggest that you consider him at Shinnecock, though that strategy failed miserably for your humble blogger at Augusta.

About the only other item of note is that Kevin Na continues to do Kevin Na things, those being especially weird:

Kevin Na put together two of the most impressive rounds on the PGA Tour this year, yet

it still wasn't enough to catch Justin Rose. 

Three days after opening the Forth Worth Invitational at Colonial Country Club with an eight-under 62, Na closed with a nine-under 61 on Sunday to tie the course record.

"You know, first round I was one out of (tying the course record)," Na said. "I was thinking, One of these days I'm going to get a chance to shoot the course record. I didn't think it would come on Sunday." 

Na is just the second player since 1983 to have multiple rounds of 62 or better in a week at Colonial.

If you're not gonna win with a 61 and 62, when will you win?  I think I'll go with "never"....

More importantly, though, I think we dodged a bullet.  Put the tartan sports jacket in the top photo over Na's Sunday shirt and LCD's would be exploding throughout our fair land.

Dateline: Virginia Water, England -  This was likely the more significant tourney of the week:

A Sunday shootout between Molinari and McIlroy at the European Tour's flagship event never really materialized.

They entered the final round tied for the lead on 13 under but while McIlroy sprayed his drives left and right, Molinari was the model of consistency and established a three-shot cushion by the turn after birdies at Nos. 3, 4 and 8. 

From there on, it was a clinic in front-running from Molinari, who laid up when he needed to and picked up his only shot on the back nine with a tap-in birdie at the par-5 12th. 

McIlroy birdied the par fives at Nos. 17 and 18 but left his victory charge too late. 

"I didn't feel intimidated at all," Molinari said of his head to head with the former world No. 1. "It's just the last couple of holes, he's basically thinking eagle, eagle. I'm thinking par, par, and that makes the whole difference.

Nobody does any more, Frankie, hence his current spot of trouble.

Though, on your behalf, this is just plain sad:

"If I could pick one tournament to win in my career, it would be this one," the Italian said at the prizegiving ceremony.

Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations.... If the Players Championship is the Fifth of Four, this is like the thirty-third of four....

But my case for significance is of course more about the runner up, for whom expectations were high.  In fact, as I noted Friday, after the first round the "smart money" installed Rors as a 3-1 fave, and it may have gotten even more ridiculous after he torched the place on Friday.

He seems to have taken a page from the Tiger playbook with this:

McIlroy has been working on some swing changes with coach Michael Bannon in

Florida, and he said it was a work in progress.

"When you're working through a bit of a swing change or a swing tweak, it takes more than a week's work to try to bed it in," McIlroy said, "and this is my first competitive start since trying to rectify things.

"I think as a tournament goes on," he added, "you're not spending as much time on the range because you're into play mode. Maybe just got away from few of the things I was working on at the start of the week, which is the way, when you get under pressure and you're forced to hit shots out on the golf course, you revert back to what you've been doing. There was a bit of that."

Just remember, it's a process...  You have to get your reps in to find those golf feels, but at the end of the day it is what it is.

I think B.B. King said it best when he noted, "Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' me too."

This seems on point, at least the  last part:

"It's close, it's very close," he said. "I've given myself a great chance here this week. I didn't quite pull it off but it's not far away. I get a bit down on myself because my expectations are high, and with a 36-hole lead, I should have closed it out this week."

On the bright side, Patrick Reed wasn't involved.

The Tour Confidential panel couldn't find time to discuss Colonial, but did pose this head-scratcher:

4. The BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour's flagship event, had only six Americans in the field, which was brought to light in a tweet by Gary Player: "What a shame for our global game. You can never be a world champion if you stay at home." (The event had only four U.S. players in 2017 and two in 2016.) Should the American stars feel more obligated to support the Euro tour's marquee stop?

Say what?  This might make Keith Pelley's head explode, but the only marquee stop in Europe is the Open Championship...  I know, it's not, strictly speaking, a Euro Tour event, but it is what it is...

While the responses are OK, adjusting for the silliness of the query, there are two factors that must have gotten lost on the cutting-room floor.  First a couple of responses:

Zak: No. They don't owe the Euro Tour anything, but they may have fans over in Europe, and one could argue they might owe them something. Missing the 2018 BMW PGA that is played during the glut of your home tour season just days before one of the biggest American events of the year IS NOT unbecoming of a world champion, I might add. Gary Player is just a fan of globe-trotting, as he can be. The bottom line is the best players play in America, so you can't blame them for hanging around, especially toward the end of May. Gary can look no further than the French-Irish-Scottish run-up to the British Open as a place where Americans are happy to commit.

Bamberger: I think Player's comment is in the right place — if you want to be a legend and icon, you have to play the world and win all over the world. But economic realities are carrying the day here for American players who stay at home in the heart of the season. Jordan Spieth saw what too much air-time does to your game.

The schedule is a factor.... as noted by others, this event will move to September next year, and that might draw more American traffic.

But the tow points I want to make are as follows.  First, venues matter.  Wentworth's West Course started life as a Harry S. Colt classic, worthy of a long journey.  But it's been serially desecrated by a string of alleged architects, most recently Ernie Els, and it's simply not worthy of the trip.  

Secondly, am I the only guy to notice that this discussion of Americans playing the Euro Tour's flagship event is curious in light of the fact that Colonial, not one of the PGA Tour's marquee, events, was won by one of the Euro Tour's marquee players? Wassup with that I hear you ask, and Curmudgeonly James Corrigan had the answer two weeks ago (H/T Shack):

Justin Rose has revealed he is skipping the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in two weeks’ time. The absence of England’s top-ranked golfer is an obvious blow for the Surrey tournament, particularly as he is such a local favourite. 

Rose - who has been challenging to become world No 1 here at The Players Championship - has agonised over the decision, but says he has been left with little choice because of PGA Tour regulations that demand pros appear in at least one event in which they have not played in the last four years. 

“It was a very difficult decision to miss Wentworth, but I felt I had to bite the bullet,” Rose said. “I’m a bit of a victim of the new PGA Tour rule. There were only a few options, and they included the John Deere [Classic] and the Wyndham [Championship] – but I wanted to play the Scottish Open before the Open at Carnoustie, so that ruled out John Deere.

Gary Player could not be reached for comment.

Don't Try This At Home, Folks - We all understand that the increasing distance these guys hit it is a direct result of all the time they spend in the gym, and Thomas Pieters puts that on display in this weeks flagship moment from the Euro Tour's flagship  event:

Thomas Pieters is known to be a strong man. He’s also known to show off a bit of a temper on the golf course. Combine the two and you have potential for the incredible, which is exactly what happened Friday. 

Pieters was five over at the BMW PGA Championship and, as you’ll see, clearly upset with himself. After lashing at his second shot from the rough on the par-5 4th hole at Wentworth Club, Pieters snapped his club in half over the back of his neck.

Look at those perfect lines...

 Video at the link....  I suppose there will be a fine involved, but so totally worth it.

Knowing a slow week when they see one, that TC panel has some fun with this display:

5. The ever-fiery Thomas Pieters took his anger out after a poor shot by snapping an iron shaft over his neck on Friday at the BMW PGA. What's the worst case of golf rage you've witnessed on the course? 

Zak: That one. The Pieters one. There is nothing more impressive and scary than that version of golf rage. There's a reason no one has ever seen anything like that before.

We forget how young some of these guys are.  A guy like Sean Zak probably hasn't even heard of Tommy Bolt....

Bamberger: While caddying on the European Tour in 1991, saw a Spanish golfer slap himself hard across his face over a short missed putt. That was bad.

Not something you see every day.  What else you guys got?

Sens: At a public course in Iowa years ago, a guy I got paired with responded to a wild tee shot by slamming his driver on the cart path. The club head broke off and bounced up and hit him in the chin. He wasn't knocked cold. It was more like a TKO.

Sometimes a club just cries out to be punished.... 

Dethier: One feat I've never seen repeated was a friend putting his fist through a cart windshield — but another story sticks out more. I was playing a 36-hole mini tour event in Florida and another player in my group hit his approach shot to 20 feet. He hit that putt four feet past the hole, then lipped out the comebacker for a three-putt bogey. He stared at the ball for a while, like it had betrayed him. Then he tapped it in, walked to his cart and drove back to the clubhouse. After one hole. That's not rage like Pieters — it's much deeper and darker.

Although the fist through the cart windshield could be good fun...

Shipnuck: Who knew Woody was so angsty? I love it. This wasn't that big of a deal but at my first Masters I was on the ropeline of the 15th hole and Curtis Strange sliced his tee shot over there. (This was back when there were big mounds right of that fairway and it was a cool spectating spot.) He hit his next shot in the water and proceeded to loose a Richard Pryor-esque monologue. I've never heard the f-word conjugated that many different ways. It made quite an impression on me.

Let's see, that would be I f***, you f*** and he, she it f***s.... I fail to see the interest therein.  Heck, I've done worse during my warm-up....

Berhow: On the 5th hole of the course I grew up on, one of my frequent golf partners had seen enough. He threw his driver down the fairway and then emptied his bag — one club after another was chucked. But he wasn't done. Soon all of his golf balls, one by one, he was crow-hopping off the tee. F-bombs flew along with the Pinnacles. The show finally ended by him kicking his bag off the platform to the lower tee. Nice guy, though.

They and we are always nice guys....  In skiing we'd call that a yard sale. 

And Lastly - One that doesn't require that I do much of anything, the last query from the TC panel:

6. With a nod to Ben Hogan and this week's Fort Worth Invitational (which Justin Rose dominated), if you could ask Hogan one question, what would it be? 

Zak: What are the residuals like for current-day sales of the Five Lessons? 

Bamberger: What's it like up there? 

Sens: How many majors do you think you would have won if you'd turned pro the same year as Tiger? 

Dethier: Whatchu think of Trackman? 

Wood: Why didn't you play more internationally? You know you can't be a great champion without doing that. 

Shipnuck: What did you really think of Arnold Palmer? 

Berhow: Would you have followed me on Twitter?

Pretty good range of responses, methinks.  Though for Shipnuck's question, isn't the "why" the more pressing issue?

Have a good Memorial Day and we'll reconvene tomorrow. 

Late Week Lamentations

The holiday weekend is upon us... Strange, in that as recently as Tuesday it still seemed to be winter.

Bifurcation, For the Children - Does Phil Blackmar strike you as a goofy sort?  Well, this column on bifurcation will not disabuse you of that notion:

So, instead of penalizing the professional player for working hard and taking advantage of all that is available today, my argument has shifted to wanting bifurcation in order to 

When you get to the fork in the road, take it....

make the game easier, less costly and quicker for the average player. 

My idea for the average player begins with distance; the game is too darn long. Think about it: If a player gives up 80 yards off the tee and 45 yards on a 7-iron (180-135), it makes sense that this player should play from 7,400 – ((80 X 14) + (45 X 14) + (4 X 50)) = 5,450 yards to relate to the tour game. Even for the player who averages 250 off the tee and 160 with a 7-iron, the same reasoning yields a 6,400-yard course, give or take a little. But I’m not stopping there, equipment rules need to be relaxed as well. 

For instance, the allowable trampoline effect for amateurs should be increased with a focus to fit slower club-head speeds. The limit on the size of the club head needs to be removed and larger grooves for more control and spin should be allowed. Ball limits should be relaxed so the player with lower club-head speed gets more benefit from new ball technologies.

There's a whole lotta crazy contained in a mere three graphs, beginning with the concept of "penalizing" players.  hasn't he heard that any scenario for a rolled back ball would leave DJ and JT and the others as big boppers?

The middle graph is equally perplexing, given that most course have a range of tees available and the governing bodies having been airing Jack's "Play it Forward" PSA's.

As for that final graph, I get the sense that the higher the handicap, the more non-conforming the equipment specs in Phil's world.  I don't see that as especially helpful to the discussion.

The comes this whiplash inducing sentence:

Courses also need to quit watering so much, which would yield a more natural look as opposed to playing in the botanical gardens.

That's a great point... though it's not terribly on point.  Phil's thought is that firmer and faster will make courses play shorter, ignoring that around the greens F&F are that much harder for the high-handicap player.  Like many, I think Phil loses sight of that fact that its difficulty is golf's greatest virtue....

But at its heart, Phil's solution to the distance issue is to make the ball go further....Curious.

Amateurs, The Good, the Bad and the Twits -  If Aaron Wise seems like a grizzled veteran, keep you eyes on these kids:

A pair of high school seniors took down some of the game's best amateurs and won the 

Hammer (l) and Barber (r).

4th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship on Wednesday. 

Eighteen-year-olds Cole Hammer and Garrett Barber downed Marc Dull and Chip Brooke 4 and 3 in the 18-hole final at Jupiter Hills Golf Club in Tequesta, Fla. 

Hammer, who played in the 2015 U.S. Open as a 15-year-old, and Barber dominated the event. They trailed for only two holes throughout their five matches and 71 holes. 

"Growing up watching U.S. Opens and U.S. Amateurs on TV, I just knew being a USGA champion is something that I desperately wanted," Hammer said. "To finally do it, it feels incredible. It feels as good, if not better, than I thought it would. And especially being able to do it with Garrett."

Is it me or do they look like they're about 12-years old...  Hammer is off to Texas and Barber to LSU.  We'll undoubtedly see them at the NCAA's at this time next year.

If the name Marc Dull rang a bell, that's because of this recent story, the proximate cause of another of my legendary segues:

Jeff Golden has offered more detail on what transpired at the Florida Mid-Amateur Championship, writing in a long statement on Twitter that Marc Dull’s caddie was “inebriated” before he allegedly sucker-punched Golden in the face.

OK, I'm not sure Mr. Golden is helping himself here.  This, for instance:

“I’ve never seen an opposing caddie engage in so much conversation with a competitor,” Golden wrote. “On the eighth hole I had become extremely frustrated when my opponent and caddie were talking and moving. I expressed my disappointment with their etiquette to the rules official in our group.” 

On the ninth hole, Golden informed the official that he believed Hibbs had broken the rules by offering advice on his putt. Golden won the hole by concession to move 2 up at the turn, and Hibbs removed himself from the match and returned to the clubhouse. 

Golden wrote that after the penalty, the match “turned even nastier, with more negative comments from my opponent on the 10th tee.” He added that he conceded Dull’s 15-foot birdie putt on No. 10 because he was “sick of the abuse from my opponent, and I wanted the match to resemble what you would expect of a FSGA final.”

None of knows what happened out there, but Golden's own description of the penalty he called sounds like BS, so a pox on them all.  And Dull seems anything but for staying out of the crossfire.....Plus, he seems to have made it through to finals of the USGA's fourball without causing any further international incidents, so he's got that going for him.

Last up on our flood-the-zone amateur coverage is a subject near and dear to me, the granting of exemptions into professional events to amateurs of indeterminate ability.  Shack has been more favorably disposed to this trend than I, but he sees the issues with this one just fine:

I'm usually a defender of sponsor's invites and the silly scores that have come with them. But I'm not sure if country singer Jake Owen (Nashville Open first round 86) taking to Twitter mid-round is the look a tournament or the PGA Tour was hoping for since Owen was pushing back at a player unhappy at seeing a spot wasted. How Owen saw the mention among his 2.28 million followers is unclear, or when he found the time to bang out a Tweet as he was racking up a huge score is also not clear.

Here's that offending tweet:

Here's the thing, Jake.  If you're checking your twitter feed during your round, then by definition you're not "playing as hard as you can".  An attorney would call that an admission against interest.  Also, you appear to be not very good at this golf thing, by the standards of a professional tournament.

Problem, Solution - When I think of Rory McIlroy these days, I'm reminded of the popular definition of insanity, i.e., doing the same thing and expecting different results.  In the lead up to the Euro Tour's flagship event at the desecrated Wentworth, we had these kind of headers:

Rory McIlroy in search of spark at BMW PGA Championship

It's not the putting or distance control with wedges, it's just that elusive spark that's missing....

Rory McIlroy takes the good and the bad of 2018 in stride as he tries to kick-start his summer at Wentworth

 Like maybe a spark?

So he goes out and posts a 5-under 67, and apparently the bookies have lost their collective minds:

Rory McIlroy a 3-1 favorite after opening-round 67 at BMW PGA Championship

Have they been told that there's three more rounds?  He's not even in the lead...

Not Gonna Happen - The issue here is secondary, of greater importance is this story that I hadn't previously heard:

In the days before caddies were allowed to wear shorts, Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams famously had a staredown with the PGA Tour regarding the rule. At the 1999 "Showdown at Sherwood," an exhibition match against world No. 1 David Duval, the caddies wore shorts, as it wasn't an official Tour event. 

When a rules official from the Tour ordered them to change to pants, Duval's caddie agreed — but Williams refused. Rules officials reportedly made it clear that if Williams failed to comply, he would be banned from caddying on the PGA Tour. 

Woods interrupted the conversation. "Guess I'll be playing in Europe next year," he said. That was motivation enough for the Tour: Williams was permitted to wear shorts, and it was less than a year before the caddie shorts rule was changed.

How silly is that?  Every part, the not allowing caddies to wear short but also that you'd trigger such a confrontation before a made-for-TV event.

But on the bigger issue, this ain't gonna happen:

"I would love it," he said. "We play in some of the hottest climates on the planet. We usually travel with the sun, and a lot of our events are played in the summer, and then on top of that when we have the winter months here a lot of the guys go down to South Africa and Australia where it's summer down there.

They do follow the sun and suffer accordingly, so boo friggin' hoo.   But look at Tiger in the photo above and you'll quickly note that he doesn't look like a professional....  The most important day on tour for the sponsors is Wednesday, and the guys need to show up as golf professionals, with the white pants and all.... Sorry, Tiger.

It's Always Something - Kevin Na is just weird, as you don't need me to tell you.  He's also impossible to watch, so bear that in mind before you turn on Colonial this week.  But he had a bit of a tiff with his long-suffering caddie Kevin Harms that worked out OK:

Microphones captured a fascinating and testy exchange between Kevin Na and his caddie, Kenny Harms, on Na's final hole of the first round of the Fort Worth Invitational on Thursday. 

Na was in the right rough, 185 yards from the ninth green, which was guarded by water. He vacillated between a hybrid and an iron, but with either club he would have to hit "a 40-yard cut," as Harms termed it. 

"Over the green's dead," Harms warned. 

"It's not gonna go over the green, Kenny," Na replied. 

Na finally settled on an iron and said to Harms, "As long as you're OK with this club." 

"I'm not," Harms replied. "I'm not OK with either one of them." 

"I'm going with this," Na ended the discussion. 

He missed the green with his approach shot, but avoided the water. After taking a free drop away from the grandstand, he had 92 feet 3 inches to the cup and of course, holed the pitch shot for a birdie-3, a 62 and a one-shot lead at the end of the first round.

The best thing to happen to golf broadcasts has undoubtedly been the improvement in audio technology...

I can't remember the player, but last week as a caddie stepped away, I heard him say to his boss, "Have a good swing".  It cracked me up, and I assume it's some kind of recurring joke between them, but is it helpful to make the guy laugh before he hits a shot?

Enjoy the holiday weekend.

Thursday Thoughts

A slowish day in the golf world, but we'll cover it all for ya...

In The "Zona - There's no confirmation that the Arizona Wildcats have adopted While We're Young™ as their slogan, but that Monday eagle proved to be the defining moment:

The Wildcats battled all Wednesday afternoon with top-ranked Alabama in the NCAA Championship final and came out on top in a tense showdown. The Crimson Tide took a

2-1 lead after the first three matches, but Arizona sophomore Sandra Nordaas defeated Angelica Moresco, 1 up, to make it 2-2. 

Then, junior Haley Moore rolled in a 4-foot birdie putt on her first playoff hole, the par-5 18th, against Lakareber Abe in the anchor match to secure Arizona a 3-2 victory and its first national title in 18 years. 

If only that turbulent final was the most difficult point of Arizona’s quest. The Wildcats nearly collapsed Monday on the final day of stroke play, falling from third at the day’s beginning to outside the top-eight cut to advance to match play as the action wound down. 

That is until junior Bianca Pagdanganan found the par-5 18th in two and drained a curling 25-foot eagle putt to save the team’s title chances. That eagle got Arizona to 33 over and into a playoff with Baylor for the eighth and final spot in match play. The Wildcats won.

Alas, the girls have Shack spewing spittle at his monitor:

They covered the television spectrum of awful to amazing over the course of Wednesday's NCAA Women's Golf Championship: there was the moribund Karsten Creek, a soulless Fazio design just oozing with ryegrass overseed and a level of drabness that exceeds even his established standards for expensive mediocrity. 

Worse, it was a course devoid of spectators--beyond family members and officials. The only real sound came from a plane flying above to capture great aerials.

All day there were players playing each shot as if it were their last, consulting pace of play-expediting rangefinders, only to then go to their yardage books and coaching insights as we waited, waited and waited for a golf shot to be struck. Then they got to the greens where they looked into green books and we viewers waited more to see golf shots. 

It was enough to make anyone despise what has become of the college game.

All true enough, though despise strikes me as a bit strong given the context.  Next up, the young men, though at the same dreary venue.

Shinny As Savior - Doug Ferguson with this hopeful note in his lede:

If the U.S. Open was suffering from an identity crisis, then a return to Shinnecock Hills should cure that.

Perhaps?  Though that might be asking a lot of any venue...  Doug wants it to erase memories of Chambers Bay '15 and Erin Hills '17, while Mike Davis wants to purge our collective memories of Shinnecock '04.

Mike Davis, the chief executive of the USGA, likes to think in different terms. One message from Monday's preview of the 118th U.S. Open was a stronger effort to stay

true to the architecture. In other words, allow the course to play the way the architect intended and remain what the USGA endlessly calls the "ultimate test." 

Davis conceded that the identity of the U.S. Open is more closely linked to the historic nature of the course more than how it is set up. 

"Jack played it more as a cookie-cutter setup," Davis said. "What we've tried to do is more respectful to architecture, so we've done that here. In '04, some of these fairways were so narrow that you had fairway bunkers 10 yards out in the rough. That doesn't make sense." 

He referenced the 1950s, when Joe Dey was running the USGA and Richard Tufts was the president, and there was a blueprint for the U.S. Open. 

"It didn't matter if it was Oakland Hills or Winged Foot," Davis said. "There would be fairways a certain width, thick rough, fast greens."

That cookie-cutter set-up survived into the 80's and 90', and we can only guess at the cause of the nostalgia coming from certain sources.  Geoff takes a first pass at explaining the seeming disconnect:

--Going to links style modern courses devoid of history (Chambers Bay, Erin Hills) 

--Ending the days of six inch rough off the fairways and trying to eliminate setup boondoggles 

--The brief move away from classic inland, tree-lined tests 

--Player or former player disdain for the USGA and/or Mike Davis and venting

There's way too much going on here to resolve in the moment, though that won't stop me from taking a brief crack at it.

 As Shack notes in his last bullet, there's always been a tension between the touring pros and the USGA, which is mostly a healthy thing.  But Geoff doesn't mention the series of rules infractions, think DJ and Brittany Lang, which the players just rightfully hate, especially since the USGA beclowned itself in the administration of its rules.

Secondly, with the benefit of hindsight, it was probably hubris to work in two of those non-traditional venues in such a short period, especially when the first presented such an agronomic disaster.  But, lost in that is that the return to Merion in 2013 might have been worse than the two new venues.

Fact is were at a juncture where I wouldn't know what to advise the USGA in terms of venues and set-up.  Having allowed equipment to evolve to the current state, how should the USGA set up its venues?  Wall-to-wall 6" rough off ribbon fairways can provide a stern test, though it's a dreary, one dimensional test....  It's a hell of a conundrum, no?

Shinny can work if they get some wind, but most Open venues are inland and don't feature wind as a primary defense.  I wouldn't want Mike Davis' job, though it is a self-inflicted wound.

Over To Alan - For his weekly mailbag feature...  Being the Maestro of of the Effortless Segue, we'll start with a U.S. Open query:

Do you think the USGA brass privately hates the reality of the PGA move to May, as the U.S. Open may lose some of the pre-championship anticipation/coverage that came from having 9 weeks between majors? #AskAlan -@TheBrianEvenson 

No doubt — I've personally heard a couple of blue coats kvetching about this. The build-up from the Masters to the U.S. Open was always exquisite torture. Now that our national championship is crammed between the PGA and Open Championship it's going to feel a little less special.

Perhaps, but I'm thinking the PGA should be the least of the blue coats' worries....  The PGA is like Tuesday (Seinfeld reference for those not attuned to the zeitgeist), it has no feel.

Why does the golf media try to make NCAA golf a thing? Unless you have a connection to a school playing, who cares? #AskAlan -Gus (@CCGabriel1) 

Um, we make it a thing because it's awesome. Tons of young talent, a quirky format, the aroused passions that comes only from college sports — what's not to like? Years ago I made a cameo when the NCAAs were at Riviera but I've decided next year I'm gonna go and provide wall-to-wall coverage. Hopefully I can change your feelings about the event!

Because Team Match Play rocks.  If you'd prefer to watch the Colonial, have at it....

What happened to all the good golfer nicknames? Is Sergio the Shaky Spaniard? What would DJ's nickname be? - John (by text through high school friend @anoorani) 

The former Golf World writer Jim Moriarity once described DJ as possessing "the oily gait of a jungle cat" — Oily Jungle Cat is a pretty bitchin' nickname, though I think Tron Carter of NoLayingUp may be the only person who has ever actually called Johnson that. I would offer Big Smooth if North Carolina basketball legend Sam Perkins hadn't already claimed it. I don't know, I think I'll solicit further ideas via Twitter. I agree that the golden age of golf nicknames has passed: Dr. Dirt (Brad Bryant), Mr. X (Miller Barber), Boss of the Moss (Loren Roberts), Boom Boom (Fred Couples), Mofo (Jim Thorpe), The Walrus (Craig Stadler), The Black Knight (Gary Player). "Beef" (Andrew Johnston) is a decent nickname. I like Lumpy (Tim Herron) and Smallrus (Kevin Stadler), too. But beyond these jolly, big-bodied fellows, it's pretty slim pickings.

First and foremost, Sergio is the Surly Spaniard....If only for this career highlight.

But I think the general trend holds true for most sports, no?  

Now a couple about last week's venue:

Does Trinity Forest realize how bad it looked on TV? #AskAlan -@PurdueMatt 

Well, one of the worst courses on the planet for watching tournament golf — on TV and in person — is the Old Course. Television flattens out the terrain and the course loses much of its charm and nuance. I'm afraid Trinity suffered the same fate. But once the ball was rolling on the ground, whether it was the rippling fairways or heaving greens, the course came alive. I thought it was a refreshing change of pace. 

The PGA Tour caved again to complaints from the players about Trinity playing too firm and fast. They watered the course on Thursday. The course was not designed to play wet and slow. Will the TURE ever stop catering to whiners? -Bill (@DjohnsonSwag)

Well, the Tour exists to serve those whiners, so probably not. But the softening of the course was more of an indictment of pace of play than it was an architectural or agrinomical decision. Basically, Tour players love caveman golf: get a number, make the same swing over and over to hit it that exact distance. Trinity asked different questions, and demanded a lot of thinking and strategizing for each shot. No wonder things slowed to a glacial pace — even with a softened course the first two rounds took around 5.5 hours to play. If the course had been a racetrack and balls were bouncing all over the place it would've taken even longer, which is a bad product. And so the course was slowed down. Sigh.

 Accepting that the nature of Trinity, like a links, is uniquely ill-suited to a camera lens, I thought it actually looked pretty good on my screen.  Of course, I'm a cheap date when it comes to anything links-like.

It's also tough to criticize the Tour for their first-day set up at new, non-traditional venue, though the bigger issue might have been the lack of wind.  Without a breeze, these guys are gonna torch the place, because they Live Under Par™.

And behold another of those signature segues:

If I'm living life "under par," doesn't that mean I'm below average? #AskAlan -@daver40

That's more like subpar, which is a tiny bit different in useage. Either way, I'm in awe of how hard the Tour is trying to make this work but, really, the whole thing feels… slightly below average.

Slightly?  It's really so bad and so forced that it's become a go-to quip.  Although I think a pool on the date it's quietly put out to pasture might be good fun.

Does Danny Willett make it back into the world top 30 again (ever) ??? #AskAlan -Andrew (@a_h_davies) 

Right now I'm working on a story about Shaun Micheel and it's really poignant when he talks about the burden of his similarly unexpected breakthrough, how the pressure (internal and applied by peers and reporters) robbed him of his love of the game. No doubt Willett is felling pretty beaten-down, too. But he's only 30, and the Masters win wasn't a fluke — he already had four Euro tour victories by then. So Willett has plenty of time and plenty of game to be the player he once was. But part of what made him so good was a chip on his shoulder the size of Yorkshire. He was a gritty grinder who played with a palpable hunger. Now he's financially secure and has a lifetime invitation to the toast of Augusta. Does Willett want to grind hard enough to fight his way back? Only he knows the answer to that.

Mebbe, though I've begun to wonder if we over-interpreted his play leading up to The Masters.  Much water over the bridge, and nothing indicating any kind of form on offer.

Though perhaps this might cheer him up?

Ever since Spieth threw away a prime opportunity to win back-to-back green jackets by dunking two shots into Rae's Creek on the 12th hole in the final round, he's had to face

questions about it. Two years and one major victory later, the questions kept coming Wednesday at the Fort Worth Invitational. 

In his press conference, Spieth attempted to explain how his perspective has changed, especially when it comes to handling the dramatic highs and lows of life on Tour. He called the 2016 Masters the "low point in my golf career."

"Even though it was still a tremendous week and still was a really good year in 2016, that kind of haunted me and all the questioning and everything. I let it tear me down a little bit. I kind of lost a little bit of my own freedom, thoughts on who I am as a person and as a golfer," Spieth said about the aftermath following his loss at Augusta.

He then went even further, saying, "I loathed going to the golf course for a while."

Meanwhile, the rest of us loath watching Jordan putt four-footers...  Enough with the drama, no?

 Back to Alan:

Alan, if you would be so kind, could you please retrieve your crystal ball and give us what the top 5 in the OWGR will be at the end of the 2021 season.... -@HarryArnettCG

This one made my brain hurt. But here goes: 1. Jon Rahm 2. Bryson DeChambeau 3. Dustin Johnson 4. Tommy Fleetwood 5. Norman Xiong

Fleetwood?  He's a nice player, but he's no spring chicken....  

And finally....

When will I know that I've found my feels? -Peter (@pmmacalu) 

You need more reps. It's a process. But if the feels never come, remember: It is what it is.

It never gets old, does it?

Gear Corner -  I am not now nor have I ever been a gearhead, but occasionally we check in with those so afflicted.  The Yo, Gear Guy has some interesting advice:

Andrew Chamberry on Facebook: At what point should I buy a new lob wedge? Does it really matter that my old faithful is beaten and battered from years of extensive use? 

The fact that your trusty old lob wedge is "beaten and battered" is not a problem it itself, rather it's the fact that the grooves are worn that is an issue. All wedges, particularly utility wedges like a 58- or 60-degree, depend on high spin rates to perform optimally around the greens, and worn out grooves can have a significant effect on spin rates, consistency, and accuracy. In fact, a number of years ago we conducted a test utilizing a launch monitor and found a brand new wedge produced close to twice the spin on a 25-yard pitch shot than an older model with worn grooves, greatly reducing control and stopping power. Also, because of the lack of spin, an old wedge will produce higher launch angles as the ball will roll up the face instead of being grabbed by the grooves. Bottom line, once your wedge grooves look worn its probably time for a replacement.

Talk about burying the lede....   the only thing that really matters on this subject is that chicks dig backspin

Katie Marmo on Reddit: The new Callaway stars and stripes golf balls are pretty cool looking. Do these designs have any effect whatsoever on overall performance?

Assuming when you ask about golf balls with "these designs" you specifically mean Callaway's Truvis pattern. For the few folks out there who aren't familiar with the Truvis pattern, it looks a bit like a soccer ball with a combination of white and red blocks or yellow and black in the normal models, and in some cases, red, white, and blue with stars and stripes. Simply put, no, this paint job has absolutely no impact on launch angles, spin rates, overall distance, or any other metric you might measure with a launch monitor. It's just paint. However, the Truvis pattern can be very helpful as visible technology, particularly when working on your putting or short game in general, since it helps you see how the ball is rolling or spinning. Personally I love the Truvis pattern and use a sleeve to work on my putting on a fairly regular basis. Also, I find balls with the Truvis pattern appear a bit larger than solid colored balls at address, which is nice for building confidence before you hit a full swing shot.

That optical illusion is very real, though it's worth on full shots is speculative.  But I do love those balls for chipping and putting as well.